Leisure Suit Lurie Wrote:Originality is kind of meaningless. Nobody creates in a vaccuum. Everything really has been done.

However it is possible to have an original take on an old idea or to combine completely separate old ideas in a new way.

Space Invaders would not be an original idea, but how about if the roles were reversed? The player controls the invaders and has to ensure that a certain percentage of the fleet survive each stage.

Instead of a FPS where you go around killing everything that moves you play the part of the poor cleaner who has to go around and make sure everything is spotless for the next visitor. You would also need to get all the ID tags of the dead and return them to their families or risk being sued

One last idea to throw out there before I go. Instead of a simple Thrust type of remake why not play the part of space pirates attempting to intercept and steal the cargo being thrusted about?

Maybe we could have a 'Turn an Idea on Its Head' contest based along these lines.

aaronsullivan Wrote:Pawns is an excellent idea, but I want the control to feel less clunky somehow.

I assume you mean the multiple clicks needed to place or move arrows. If you have any specific comments feel free to add them to this thread:http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10905
I added keyboard shortcuts recently, but some trial and error will be needed to find a better overall scheme and I didn't have time during the contest.

Andrew Sage Wrote:However it is possible to have an original take on an old idea or to combine completely separate old ideas in a new way.

I played a flash game a while back where it was a vertical shooter but you were controlling the fortress and defenses in an attempt to kill the lone ship making its way to the boss. Didn't quite work in my opinion but an interesting idea, nonetheless.

Andrew Sage Wrote:Maybe we could have a 'Turn an Idea on Its Head' contest based along these lines.

Heh. That would be kinda of cool. I think it would be hard to make the game fun, though. However I won't mind if someone can prove me wrong.

Yay! Someone actually liked Chemical Bonds! Well, my girlfriend likes it so really, that's all I need (and she drew the sexy scientist for me too). But seriously, my original intent was to take Chiral and add some twists to it but time constraints prevented me from doing anything really different. I have a couple ideas I'm going to put in once I come back to working on it, though, so though project is not dead yet.

As for some of my favorites:
I liked Pawns, And Round Again, and Traktor Beam a lot (especially the look and feel of Traktor Beam).

Grobbler's Quest was a lot of fun; it reminded me a lot of those old British games for the Commodore 64.

MacBornes was great because now I can practice without losing to my girlfriend all the time.

Pakimono was a good concept but just needed better execution.

Illuminations was pretty fun but it just needed more gameplay to it.

There were some other ones that I liked too but these were the ones that stood out.

Despite some of the ideas in these games being used in other places or variations having been done before, I'd say the selection of games in this contest are, overall, "FRESH." In other words, there aren't a lot of currently marketed games that are like them. At the very least, most have a twist of some kind on a traditional genre. I'm impressed.

As for Space Barrage 2... It could be that I'm picking away at in my spare time.